Highway 1 is set to reopen at 11 a.m. next Friday, July 20, more than a year after a massive mudslide at Mud Creek cut off the humble and historic roadway with the drop-dead gorgeous backdrop south of Big Sur.

Caltrans announced an earlier target date for re-opening Highway 1, good news for tourists, truck drivers and the mom-and-pop businesses that line the famed route.

For the first time in 14 months, the Pacific Coast Highway will once again carry travelers up and down the spectacular coast. “Rebuilding Highway 1 and restoring traffic along the Big Sur coast has been our priority,” said Caltrans Acting District 5 Director Richard Rosales, “and by opening the highway sooner than expected, it will boost the many Central Coast communities affected by this major landslide.”

Credit: Brian Mack/YouTube

Earlier this week, crews extended the closed section of Highway 1 south to Ragged Point as they hustled to give the new stretch of roadway at the Mud Creek Slide site a brand new coat of asphalt. Now, the highway’s nearly ready to go.

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Highway 1 has been dearly missed. Travelers from around the world were denied access to one of the most spectacular drives on the planet, while business suffered at hotels and restaurants along the route. Caltrans had originally estimated it would be mid-September before drivers could take the road through Big Sur directly from Cambria to Carmel, but now that reopening has been moved up and will be celebrated with a ribbon-cutting ceremony.

The Mud Creek landslide shut down the road just north of Cambria in May 2017. More than 6 million cubic yards of material fell onto Highway 1 and into the ocean, creating 15 additional acres of coastline. Crews worked 24 hours a day to clear the area impacted by the landslide and Caltrans says the opening is happening two months ahead of schedule. The cost: a cool $54 million.

Patrick May is an award-winning writer for the Bay Area News Group working with the business desk as a general assignment reporter. Over his 34 years in daily newspapers, he has traveled overseas and around the nation, covering wars and natural disasters, writing both breaking news stories and human-interest features. He has won numerous national and regional writing awards during his years as a reporter, 17 of them spent at the Miami Herald.